Yummies

Yesterday, for some reason, I woke up wanting to bake, or make candy, or something of the sort.    So, after a little shopping, I stopped in at County Market and got a few extra ingredients like milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and cocoa.  Ha!

After dinner, I got busy, and made some chocolate chip cookies, and some chocolate, nutella & sea salt fudge - a recipe I found on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site (of course).

Let me just say it is THE BEST FUDGE EVER.  It's a dark chocolate fudge, and it is amazing.  Everyone loves it, and it was super-easy to make.   Which is a bonus, since I'll have to be making it often to satisfy my newfound craving for the stuff. 

Tonight, I continued with my baking "blitz", and made some peanut butter blossom cookies, at Sarah's request. 

And they turned out pretty good.  At least that's what I was told.  I won't eat any of them, of course, since I made them using a traditional recipe with wheat flour, and that's a no-no for me. 

I'm not sure why I'm on a baking "kick" this weekend, but I suppose it probably has something to do with the fact that Christmas is coming up next weekend.  Christmas is always a good time to make some goodies, and share them.

Anyway, when I decided to make those Peanut Butter Blossoms, I also decided to take a few pics of the whole process.    I always say I'm going to do that, but never follow through with pics of the entire process.

First, of course, I gathered all of my ingredients...

Then I got started with my favorite part of baking -  creaming the butter and sugar.

I can't explain it, but that's been my favorite part of baking since I was a little girl.  Probably something to do with the way the grainy sugars combine with the butter and get smooth and creamy.  (duh - it's called "creaming")

After the dough was mixed, I dropped small balls of it into sugar, and got them ready for baking.

Once they came out of the oven, the tricky part started.   Once they come out of the oven, you've got mere seconds to get the kisses placed before the cookies start to cool.  Thankfully, I think I've got the hang of it. 

I also cranked out a pretty good batch of snickerdoodles tonight, and got a sampling of everything I've made this weekend boxed up to deliver to a few people for the holidays.

I think my baking urge is passing, but you never know.  There may still be some candy in my future...